Terry Jones

Author Archive

the semantic web is the new AI

Sunday, March 18th, 2007 Posted under me, representation, tech. | Comments Off on the semantic web is the new AI

I’m not a huge fan of rationality. But if you are going to try to think and act rationally, especially on quantitative or technical subjects, you may as well do ... Read more..

more on flight costs

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 Posted under travel. | Comments Off on more on flight costs

Continuing from the last post, let’s suppose fuel costs are constant across all airlines. On my 6-hour Air Comet flight, I will be paying about $8/hr for fuel and $10/hr for ... Read more..

jfk to madrid for 83 euros

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 Posted under companies, travel. | 2 Comments »

I’m about to book a cheap flight from JFK to Madrid with Air Comet. There are some alarming and amusing comments about the airline online. See this page for example ... Read more..

orwell on dickens

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 Posted under books. | Comments Off on orwell on dickens

I’ve not read a single word of Dickens. I don’t know the plot of a single book, apart from superficial knowledge of Oliver Twist. For a long time this has ... Read more..

in praise of simplicity

Saturday, February 24th, 2007 Posted under books, tech. | Comments Off on in praise of simplicity

In her keynote at PyCon a few minutes ago, Adele Goldberg just mentioned Mitch Resnick’s book Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams. I wrote a review of the book for the ... Read more..

no coffee before 10am at PyCon!

Saturday, February 24th, 2007 Posted under tech. | Comments Off on no coffee before 10am at PyCon!

I’m at PyCon in Dallas, at the Dallas/Addison Marriott Quorum. There are 580 attendees. Morning talks start at 9 and people are milling around downstairs from 8 or so. Of ... Read more..

calculus of secrets

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 Posted under other. | Comments Off on calculus of secrets

OK, this has nothing to do with calculus, but I wanted a short title. Better would have been On the monotonically decreasing incentive to keep secrets, etc. If you have a ... Read more..

UI consistency

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 Posted under tech. | Comments Off on UI consistency

I often wonder if I’m super sensitive to issues in user interface, or if everyone notices the same things that I do. For example, when I find things that are inconsistent ... Read more..

dental mental

Saturday, February 17th, 2007 Posted under other. | Comments Off on dental mental

I’m getting a tooth crowned. I had no idea how involved the process is. I’ve been to the dentist 3 times and she tells me it’s going to be 3 ... Read more..

will they never learn?

Saturday, February 17th, 2007 Posted under companies, tech. | Comments Off on will they never learn?

I find it amazing that huge corporations are unable to see that attempts to copy protect things always fail. Here’s another one gone wrong. Undoubtedly, millions were spent on getting ... Read more..

conspiracy of sleepers

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 Posted under me. | Comments Off on conspiracy of sleepers

I don’t seem to need to sleep as much as some. I’m perfectly happy with 4 hours a night, can probably go indefinitely on 6 hours a night, and anything ... Read more..

go right

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 Posted under me, travel. | Comments Off on go right

Large passenger planes have two aisles. When leaving the plane, the right hand side always moves much faster than the left. I think this happens because the door is on the ... Read more..

backwards E

Monday, January 29th, 2007 Posted under tech. | 4 Comments »

I don’t know how much weight I’d give to this study. But it reminds me of a joke we had in mathematics at Sydney University in the early 80’s. It ... Read more..

democrats to eat their own?

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 Posted under politics. | Comments Off on democrats to eat their own?

I love the dynamics of the upcoming US presidential race. With Hilary and Obama both in the running for the Democratic nomination, it’s gonna be a doozy. You can see ... Read more..

walk-in legal shop

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 Posted under companies. | Comments Off on walk-in legal shop

Here’s something that seems new. It’s a shop where you can go to get legal help. Maybe I’m behind the times, but this seems like an idea with huge potential. The ... Read more..

how i spent my night

Friday, January 12th, 2007 Posted under tech. | Comments Off on how i spent my night

Here’s how I spent my night. Which says nothing of the amount of time I spent deep in the debugger finding the problem in the first place. Not to mention ... Read more..

YouTube spam

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 Posted under tech. | Comments Off on YouTube spam

I just got spammed at the email address I signed up with at YouTube: Nora72o has sent you a message Use http://www.youtube.com/my_messages?folder=inbox&filter=messages to go directly to this message, or go to your ... Read more..

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 Posted under other. | Comments Off on All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

London tube poster Read more..

unrewarding life as an airline customer

Monday, December 25th, 2006 Posted under me. | Comments Off on unrewarding life as an airline customer

Why do all airlines treat their customers like shit? I’ve wondered this from time to time, and I guess there are many reasons. I’ve been treated like shit so many times ... Read more..

fergus. beer.

Thursday, December 7th, 2006 Posted under me. | Comments Off on fergus. beer.

I’m sitting here drinking a beer with Fergus. That’s it. Read more..